Does anyone else see my dilemma? Unless I have a duplicate of an item, it simply doesn't made good economic sense to tie up that item for a week or more when I'm far from certain I'll get even one bid.

Please don't take this message as totally negative. I like what I've seen of AU, but I'm sorry, it just can't come near eBay for making me money. And after all, that IS the bottom line, isn't it?

I'll be listing now and then, and keeping my eye on AU. But for now, I just can't see the benefit to me in spending lots of time listing, or in tying up good items that I could be selling THIS WEEK on eBay.

Hope you all don't mind me mentioning eBay on this board. AU is mentioned frequently on the eBay board, so I'm assuming my post is not inappropriate.

Okay, I've gotten that off my chest, and would welcome someone else's take on this situation.

Pat noted on another thread that out of x amount of listings I had x amount of bids. Well, all I know is I get bids on less than 1/2 my auctions not the 90% that Pat portrayed. Also, on most other sites (at the time my auctions were listed here) I would sell close to 20 lots on my tag protectors per listing while here it was 1 lot per listing when I received bids. All other factors were the same, my prices were highly competative and I listed at similar times for closing.

What my problem is, is navigating on AU. TO get to a catagory you have to keep looking at Featured auction lists as they get pared down. Then you have to figure what next link to choose. Even after I got used to it sometimes I would end up in one of the *News* areas rather than listings.

Searching is great, easy to figure out and to use. Getting into the various areas to leave feedback, check your account, or update your personal info is somewhat confusing.

I'd also like to sue a nickname like other sites support to prevent SPAM harvesters from getting it.

If not for all the incentives I would not have been as likely to try AU as I did not want to risk paying to list items that would not sell. The *freebies* are necessary, and do draw sellers. Buyers though are what is more important.
*(changed the following to hopefully say what I meant to say)
For the Club99 event coming up, the best way to see how the Club99 auctions go would be for Club99 sellers to try and refrain from bidding on each others auctions. Of course that is easier said than done :-)

[This message has been edited by Brianc (edited 10-30-98).]
 

You are wrong. club99 sellers were asked not to bid on the Featured Auction that I ran..

They are bidders just like everything else..

If you could ever pull you head out of your ego you might..just might make it to the pearly gates..

HOW MANY TIMES ARE YOU GOING TO OPEN YOUR MOUTH WITHOUT THE FACTS..?????

Crystal

 

I didn't mean to mess up your thread.. I am sure Pat will be by shortly..

Crystal
 

I guess I posted mostly to rant a bit since no one else in this house would know what the hay I was talking about, and the rest of you would.

Will look forward, though, to seeing what, if anything, others think about this.
 

Have you participated in Club99 on eBay? If you had and if you had read the guidelines then you would know that Club99ers are only restricted from bidding on the Club99 featured auction. In fact, Crystal cancelled some bids on the featured auction when they came from Club99ers.

You complained about folks using the eBay Outlook to talk about AU. But here you are talking about Club99 in an eBay context. It can only be in that context since Club99 has yet to run on AU.

Please restrain your observations, comments and criticisms to the facts. And the fact is that Club99 is yet to run on AU.

If you don't want to participate in Club99 that is your choice. But it borders on the irresponsible on your part to take such a public stance against Club99 before it has been given a chance.

Do yourself, Crystal, the Club99ers and the other sellers and buyers participating in online auctions the courtesy of allowing the experiment before condemning the results.
 

And in between, I pick up stuff to sell on ebay and in the mall. I end up with lots of stuff, so quite frankly it doesn't matter to me if an item doesn't sell the first time out..

Let me give you an example.. I have a Delphite Childs set..paid 280 books for 400, listed on ebay .. didn't meet reserve, which was 300..So, I relisted it again..didn't meet reserve..

Okay..so now I am out 4 bucks..it has now cost me 284.00..

Now I know I can take these to a show and get 350.00, but will take 300 just cause I took the picture..LOL,

Now my next show isn't until June..I won't take less than I paid, because I can still use it at a show..its nice to take nicer things..

So, in the meantime..I could conceivable had listed that item on Auction Universe for 24 weeks for the same 4.00..and not even really because I have the free listings and free bold listing. And if it did sell, I would pay less in commission.

On the converse side..I have a lot of items that I have virtually nothing into. I have purchased estates and long since paid for the items that I have..So there is no risk for me.

I want to build a reputation at another online auction house..The internet is such a fragile thing. And I need to pay my mortgage, I don't know if there will be a lawsuit that shuts ebay down, or an earthquake. It only seems in my own best interest to expand my horizon...

But the best reason of all is that I get bored..and like a change..I won't relist at ebay anymore..I am so tired of that How to get more bids...I could vomit..LOL

crystal
 

I'm still very much in the small potatoes stage, but I'm one of those determined folks (like you) and will not be deterred! I just need to learn alot, and this board and the Q&A are good places to learn. Like you, I've never failed at anything I really put my mind to.

So, it might not happen today or tomorrow, but it WILL happen. And I will continue using AU, just can't afford to tie my tiny inventory up much right now.

Thanks for your comments...and for bringing the thread back to where I was hoping it would go. LOL
 

Yes, our search is really good! I'm glad you noticed and took the time to comment.

Here, try it out.

Go to AU, go to power search. Scroll down to "sellers search" ... key in Brian's ID: Isaiah58 and then go to the "Auction Status" field and click on "all closed auctions" The results will show Brian sold 16 of 21 items on AU for a closing ratio of 76.2 percent.

On the auction you made note of most recently, -- the Beanie Baby Official Club Auction Get Clubby -- you had a Dutch auction you opened at $7 and offered ten items. The bidder bid on and presumably received all ten. You paid zip for the listing and $1.75 in commissions to AU. I apologize for your error. I thought if you wanted $8, you would have listed it for $8.

The last time you offered that same item for $8, on eBay, you got one bid. I'll assume you paid a quarter for the listing. You paid a commission of 5 percent or $.30. Your total fees were $.55 cents or 6.9 percent of your great eBay sale.

I should mention -- maybe someone might bid on it -- Brian has 20 more BBOC items up at eBay at an opening bid of $8 -- and no bids. I guess everyone is waiting until the last minute to bid.

I must admit, though, Brian's overall conversion ration on eBay is higher than on AU -- 76.2 percent vs. 88 percent on eBay.

But if we just take all 8 auctions he's run on AU since August, he's batting 100 percent with us -- every auction got a bid! Good Job Brian!

Of course he also stopped trying to get $22 for the same tag protectors he was selling in August for $13.00 and $14. (Buyers on AU know what is a bargain and what is not, that is the reason they're going to love club99)

Of course the 88 percent closing rate on eBay counted only the auctions that closed in the last 30 days. Their records disappear after that.

Thanks Brian for dropping in. I'd rather you be here than anywhere else:-)

Feel free to post until your heart is content. I just think this is great!

Come back now,

neomax

Sorry for delay in posting at all. Boy you folks write fast.

Actually I was just about to post a response to you ...working on the last couple of graphs. -- you know how wordy I can get -- so I need to go back through for a trimming edit -- when BrianC dropped in with his plesant little surprise.

As is pretty well known, I'm a staffer at AU and, hey, everyone is reading this saga. Needless to say, I have to be particularly sensitive to the needs of our customers both past and present.

Sometimes that does take a little editing:-)

Anyway, let me get back to your original post and give you a reply.

And thanks guys for filling in for me. I am absolutely blessed by all -- and that means you too Brian:-)

neomax
 

I've looked at auctions all around and some auctions are so bad you couldn't sell a dog to a flea.

On the other hand I can say that Sneaky Dave reports an 88 percent success rate on AU and BrianC, does even better -- 100 percent of the auctions he offered since August 1.

I've got respect for any seller that turns 70 percent of their listings to sales and Brian does that as does Sneaky -- both on AU

With a much broader offering, my experience is not quite as good. Still, I'm not bad at turning a phrase and using my wife's account carrymee -- I'm still training her :-) -- she's obtained bids on 84.6 percent of her auctions.(11/13) but that really ought to be 91.6 percent as one of the failures sold on a relist at a little lower price (still profitable.)

My personal record on eBay is ancient history because they send items to the bit bucket but my overall record on AU is a paltry 58 percent success rate. But then the last auction I did ended March 31. All my failed auctions didn't have photographs and were listed in our first month of operation. Our membership and server traffic (page views) was a very small fraction of what they are now. All auctions listed in 1998 sold although not all the Dutch auctions were a sellout.

There are a couple of points. The first is this-- good sellers sell, bad sellers don't.

I see ‘em everyday. Buy my car it is a good 1989 Eagle Premier with 150,000 miles, needs work. Opening bid $3269. [email protected] (-3).

Many of our newest sellers, frankly, are schooled in newspaper classified writing. That level of description and effort doesn't cut it. You won't sell items at AU with a cryptic line of type. Too many of our auctions fit that description.

But not all our failed auctions are such blatant invitations not to bid.

There is another element or point to making sales. And this is the one that concerns us all. If there is no one looking for or can't find your item, then no one will be able to bid.

First, we've got lookers -- over a million page views a week. These are folks who have found us, many have come in from our multi-million dollar advertising in collecting and antique magazines, on the Internet and from our affiliated newspapers and sellers. They are looking for NASCAR material, Action Figures, Comics, Sports Collectibles, Movie Memorabilia and Beanies, just to name a few of the hotter categories.

We're expanding our reach into other categories as quickly as we can. For goodness sakes, we sponsor Pez.org and the International Book Collectors Society (rarebooks.org). (Was AuctionWatch a mistake?;-)

These categories are growing but in some categories the listings are sparse. The buyers come but if fail to see anything worthwhile, they're off elsewhere. To us, that is a missed opportunity.

But this is getting long. Let me just point to a couple of facts. Auction Universe is the newspaper industry's most promising effort to get into the Internet classified arena. And a trip to aun.com shows that it is definitely shaping up industry-wide. Newspapers are not entrepreneurial businesses, they are institutions with "institutional values."

They are here for the long haul. It is good place to do business. They will treat you fairly and provide service with a smile. Nothing happens over night.

neomax

 

Which simply goes to the point that good sellers can sell good products at good profits at AU.

Our bidders and buyers are not the same people as on eBay. We've been out beating the bushes for more than a year building our own consumer base.

Often they value items higher and because our "robo-bid" feature inspires more confidence than eBay's proxy bid, they bid higher to begin.

neomax

[This message has been edited by neomax (edited 10-29-98).]
 

Seadog~ I actually have several of some items so I plan to run them parallel and compare apples to apples.

Neomax~ I must tell you when I was having technical problems even opening an account your dealer rep CALLED me on the phone. Now that is customer service. LOL Your tech people are still working on my other problem, but at least they have emailed a couple of times for info!
 

I'm not surprised. It comes from the culture of our corporate parents.

When you subscribe to a newspaper, they throw it in your driveway early in the morning so you can read it with your coffee. When you place a classified ad, you talk to a real human being either at the counter or on the phone. Customer service is an essential element of that business and our business.

We wish the Internet was glitch-free, but we all know its not. Customer service in our book is essential and we may as well do it right!

neomax

PS: Also, we didn't pay $12 million for AOL exclusivity so we've got the budget.

 

Not bad statistics, huh? Will be watching AU much, much closer now...and listing more frequently. Thanks.

One itty-tiny nitpick...AU seems harder to navigate than eBay. Maybe I'm just not used to it yet. I'll give that time, too.

Oh, and can one use a userid on AU? Haven't seen anywhere that can be done, but I'd feel more comfortable with it, I think.

All the above is worth exactly what you paid for it...
 

OH NO, don't tell them that:-) Really folks, I didn't pay anything for those kind words!!!! Promise.

Heck, it was weeping who started this thread entitled "My problem with AU" You believe me, don't you!

I don't even want to kid about that kind of stuff.

Still I'm glad you're meeting with such success on AU but personally I'm not terribly surprised:-)

We've really got a good number of buyers and one of my points for a long time has been that what we really need most are good sellers. Finding them is one of the primary reasons I'm here:-)

Regarding user ID's, I have to say that while I personally don't think they're a good idea, they'll probably come. I'm hoping later than sooner because I want to know when the person I'm buying from has an email of [email protected], but covers it with an ID of "saltofearth".

Maybe I'm from the old school, but I really like the fact that I've been using neomax as my email handle since 1995. Heck, if you send something to [email protected], I'll get it:-)

I know user ID's are designed to stop spam but my experience is that I get a lot more spam from my primary aol address -- which I've never used in the auctions -- than I do the email address I do use.

The primary reason for ID's was not from buyers and sellers. It was because eBay doesn't want another Onsale probing their site for users and bringing their system to a crawl.

neomax

PS: AU's policy is to never use UCE (spam). We also don't pay for endorsements.

[This message has been edited by neomax (edited 10-30-98).]
 

You observed how the price on one of my items changed, went down over time. When I first started selling the product I was paying a lot more. My cost went down as I purchased more (accumilative). I was actually at $25 per hundred before I used AU. Then, I hit a price that was competative with everyone else. After that the competition got agressive, so I had to drop my price to compete. I even found a new line and it was a better product plus my cost was low enough to stay competitive.

So, I keep the same price on all sites no matter what the competition is on each specific site.

The BBOC kits were doing well, on eBay and up4sale, but I noticed a few auctions by other sellers had been run here and the results were not that good. eBay's results could be better also, up4sale did the best. Since I had to drop the price so low I could not afford a comission. Now the supplies are running low and a new version is coming out so I can rasie the price enough to pay a comission.

Before you compare the comission to eBay, there is one other factor. I have a web site and advertise on the NG's and wherever I can. Sales on the auction sites are fine, but the *advertising* is also important. Maybe bds are low here and there but I get lots of repeat business and offer repeat customers discounts. So, it balances out.

I think some sellers may not agree with selling outside the auction but as they start listing on AU and eBay and other sites they are going to learn diversity. I for one have been selling on the WWW for cloes to 5 years so the auctions are a new way to sell, I did not give up direct sales and will not turn buyers down.

Now, I will never list an item for sale then sell it outside the auction unless it closes without any bids (or does not meet reserve). Brian
 

I can tell from you record on AU and eBay that you're a responsive seller. Yes, your price does drop because you're responsive to competition, yes your feedback is good with reports of prompt delivery of properly described goods, and finally, your auction descriptions are selling descriptions that attract and close bidders.

I can also tell from your various 411 pages that you are a helpful individual in most cases:-) and that simply speaks to a service attitude and mentality -- much like AU's. (If eBay paid you to do that, then they could take credit for your work.)

You point out your original efforts on the net were not on the auctions but on newsgroups and other similar forums.

Indeed, if you've read much about the inspiration of eBay, you'd know it was the inefficiency of selling through the newsgroups that spurred Pierre to his brainstorm. The problem was simply that a person would offer a particular item and would often sell to the first person. The seller then would have to respond to the 250 other interested parties.

The auctions make sense. They collect bids for sellers and put all the dealing out in the open. In general (barring shillers and others who would manipulate bids) it is a very fair process.

Now -- and I'm sure you do this -- sellers list an item on the auctions and then "market" thier product to the newsgroups, telling people how to find them. Often they just include elements of the description and the auction number in their posts. Good sellers do this.

What AU needs is more good sellers... like you Brian. Hopefully someday you'll develop the loyalty you so admirably showed for eBay for AU. We will be much richer for that if you do.

Thanks for the post. Comeback now:-)

neomax
 

I would say welcome to AU but I can see that somehow our efforts to make you feel such are failing:-)

Let me see if I can get you through the confusion. First, I've got your email and I'll arrange you a credit for the 100 free listings and 200 bold face listings. You'll know you have it when you a post from service on this.

Second. The listing five and showing three. We've been experiencing trouble with our site in the last 24 hours. This, no doubt, has contributed to this situation. I can only apologize for your unrewarded effort.

I know our tech folks were up until 5:30 this morning (3:30 MTN time) working on the problem before they sounded the all clear. I think they worked the fix with a patch as I've personally experienced intermittant problems this morning.

It does appear that our affiliated sites, which aren't bid-safe capable yet, are operating better than the main AU site. I would suggest that you list on one of these sites if you experience any slowness on the AU site whatsoever.

http://www.laauctions.com
http://www.ctauctions.com
http://www.pennauctions.com

We pride ourselves on being a reliable site but we've just added several new features such as bid$afe and other content that appear to have some bugs in them.

Our affiliated sites, which operate on display software that pre-dates even the introduction of our new look on Sept.is very stable. (Of course we thought our new software was stable.)

I certainly expect things to settle down by this evening. And, regarding your less than grand welcome, consider it extended at this point. WELCOME!

Don't hesistate to post me here or personally at [email protected] if you experience any problems whatsoever.

neomax

I think you may be confusing us with someone else:-)

I can't say that we don't EVER use cookies but I know that we're not supposed to use cookies at AU for any reason. I turned my cookie detector on and came into our site wihtout being halted by a cookie alert. I went to a major category section -- still no cookies -- and proceeded to drill down in the categories without cookie one.

I went as far as I could without bidding on an item without a cookies being involved.

Regarding "excessive" emails... we deliver one newsletter a week to individuals who request them.

If you recieved any emails today from AU it should have been real people seeking to respond to your real needs -- not spam.

I think I've been copied or BCC'd on most of those contacts and my count is two or three emails. If you have any more from us beyond that, please forward them to me as they sound like they might be something other than what they appear.

Oh, and we do send a daily report of your auction activity. you should not receive more than one of those. They come only when you have either a top bid (active) or an item up for auction.

Let me say this, we will also be introducing a better way to do this function, including replying to those who buy your goods, in the near future. We know that can be a bother and if we can save you time, then you can make more money. Time, your time, is the most precious commodity being expended in all the online auctions. More on that later.

Again, Welcome Newadditions -- and I hope you become a permanent new addition to the Auction Universe family. Good luck with your auctions everywhere!

neomax

[This message has been edited by neomax (edited 10-31-98).]
 

Glad you could join in this time..Sorry it was so eventful for you.
I saw your listings..:-).

Murphy's Law has bitten me too. Jim is installing Windows NT and we switched computers..My keyboard doesn't work on this one and I am using one I have to beat the key s on..Will have bloody fingers for sure !!

crystal..(ps..we have an au board set up for Club99..:-)

 

I have to revise my earlier comment regarding cookies. I know for the longest time we had none but, if you can tell from my post above, I thought I heard there were some.

Well, I've confronted two so far... one when I hit the Club99 button on the front page and then when I went to search. Of course, both are search functions.

Sorry for the less than perfectly accurate info...

Oh hi Crystal... Boy you know everybody:-)

neomax
 

Instead of withdrawing, why not take your ambition seriously and MAKE a presence, sufficient to attract buyers? Instead of "testing" with one or two items, test with 30, 40, 50. You're interested in making a living off it, right? Can't do that with just one or two items, can you? Think about it. Put yourself in the buyer's shoes: would you be very interested in shopping at a place where only two items show up in the "widget" category?

In normal retailing, it's usually considered very important to crowd the showroom, puts lots of abundance on display. So far, from visiting auctions all over the web, I've noticed taht this bit of psychology translates from 3D meat space to the Net quite well. People are attracted by the same sorts of displays as normal retailing.

Think about it, anyway.
 

Maybe the next thread should be "How to get Bidders to come & buy at AU"
 

Welcome aboard. We're going to do our best to help you make money.

Thanks for waving the flag and, I think from our encounters in the last 24, you see we'er here to serve.

Lazysquaw:

I'm sorry to hear that you're doing poorly. Most sellers who've come to AU, because they know how to sell, do quite well.

I might recommend, if it is possible, to do a Club99 or two auction. That will get you a listing on Club 99's site and will also get your auctions exposed when we do the Club 99 button on the front page on Dec. 1.

I also love your idea of a thread on what sellers as a group can do to bring more buyers to AU.

Capotasto: You're right, we have almost two dozen other web sites.

But there is a reason and frankly, it doesn't take away one whit from our efforts to market AU alone. It actually helps.

The reason is simple. We're one of key efforts of newspapers ... yep those folks that print multiple-millions of classified ads every day nationwide -- to protect that business on the web.

Each one of those newspaper web sites you mention market their sites locally in print and also on their web components.

But the cool thing is that if you list an item on AU, it appears in the listings at LAauctions.com (The Los Angeles Times Auction), CTAuctions.com (The Hartford Courant), etc. etc.

We may be competing with ourselves in once sense, but not really. We're all one happy family with the same membership. If you register on LAauctions, you can come into AU and bid (or visa-versa). If you like the way LAauctions looks better than AU, go list there, it will show up on AU anyway.

Hardly competition:-)

The other news is that while we started as the Times-Mirror effort, we are now a newspaper industry effort, having been acquired by Classified Ventures, the partnership of Times-Mirror, The Washington Post, Gannett (USA Today + a bunch of others), The New York Times Co. (Includes the Boston Globe), Knight-Ridder, Central Newspapers, McClatchy, etc. etc.

All these folks we expect will have local sites like those you mentioned and hey, they reach millions and millions of people through both their newspapers and television and radio stations.

These are all local sites and while they share, at least for the foreseeable future, the same database of listings, AU will remain as the sole national site. (I wonder if USA Today will eventually give us a run for the money:-)

All the sites you mention and the ones coming on board in the coming weeks and months provide us with new members, many of whom have never seen or heard of online auctions.

Think of us as kind of like Amazon.com except with a private branded face on our affiliated sites.

The result that counts for you is that have a large but generally different group of buyers and sellers than eBay. Some folks posting me see this -- the ad description that reads like a newspaper classfied -- and wonder why those people don't make a more detailed listing description. Partly the reason is they don't know better. (That's why I'm recruiting good sellers, who generally do well on AU.)

Regardless, these affiliated sites add buyers through their promotions on their home newspaper sites.

And don't worry about us not having the resources to do the job. With Times-Mirror we had deep pockets. With our association with Classified Ventures, those pockets have grown even deeper.

I'll conclude by sharing a little of our vision.

First, you now see eBay with close to a million auctions. Heady stuff but a single auction tends to get lost.

We imagine 200 market areas with places like LA with 500,000 auctions local auctions and McAllen Tx with 5,000 items, many of which are heavy items such as cars and furniture and applicances -- the things you can't sell on AU or eBay. These items appear locally because often it would cost more to ship them than they're worth. (A used washing machine would cost more to ship than it is worth.)

AU, on the other hand, concentrates on things such as autographs, sports collectibles, art and jewelry, sharing those listings with all the local affiliates and adding excitement to the local auctions. (Washing machines are pretty dull:-)

BTW: eBay knows this and that is why, when they saw our affiliation and approach to the market -- going after local affiliates -- they named us as their primary nightmare.

As I think Zina pointed out, this whole industry is in its infancy -- even eBay is a "baby" -- but it has a long way to go.

We're in the unfortunate position of not being the "first born son."

neomax